The doorbell rang. I went out,

the doorbell rang. I went out, opened the door. Some guys came in including a bearded man who said,

hello, I'm your killer. I wish you a good health. I said, nice to meet you.

The whole situation was pretty chaotic. The hardest part was having to lie, having to watch how they suffer, your loved ones, your relatives, your friends.

It wasn't just difficult, it was unbearable.

My name's Jonah Fisher. I'm the BBC's Ukraine correspondent.

And in this week's assignment, I'm going to tell you how earlier this year I was caught up in one of the most incredible fake news stories of all time. This is a bit different. I'm sitting in a parked car just outside a busy shopping center in Central Kiev and I'm

waiting to meet an assassin.

His name is Alexi Simbalioq and a couple of months ago he was approached and even paid money

to kill a prominent Russian journalist.

How would I be here? Good evening. I am Alex Zetim Baluk and I am the killer of Arcadia Babchenko.

I'm glad to see you. I'm happy to see you too. Crazy times. Yeah, very crazy. Okay, let's go. The headlines this morning

this morning.

Ukraine has suggested that the murder of a Russian journalist in Kyiv

When the Russian journalist Arcadibamchenko was gunned down at his apartment in the Ukrainian capital Kiev,

people around the world were horrified. But the next day, something even more shocking occurred. The murder victim turned up

alive and well at a press conference. This was the astounded reaction at the TV channel where Babchenko worked as they stared open-mouthed at their colleague.

Just a few hours earlier, they'd been reporting on his death.

Here at the BBC and Kiev no one could quite believe it either.

But let's go back to the guy in the car, Alexi Simbaliuk, the chosen assassin, a stocky man with a twinkle in his eye and a bushy blonde

beard.

He's telling me how he was approached for the job.

...